Quantized valley source in bilayer graphene via adiabatic quantum pumping

Abstract

We propose a quantized valley source based on adiabatic quantum pumping in bilayer graphene in the presence of both quantum spin Hall and quantum valley Hall effects. By periodically modulating the gate voltages of two quantum dots coupled to a bilayer graphene nanoribbon, the helical edge states enable the generation of a pure valley current. Depending on the geometry of quantum dots, the number of emitted valley pairs either forms quantized plateaus or varies continuously with the pumping amplitude. The quantized plateau structure can be tuned by the static gate voltage and by the coupling between the quantum dots and the ribbon. Quantized valley pairs are robust against Anderson disorder applied in the quantum dots and persist for both zigzag and armchair quantum-dot boundaries. These results demonstrate that adiabatic quantum pumping provides a route toward electrically controllable quantized valley sources.